America's Best & Worst Restaurant Chains

By David Zinczenko & Matt Goulding

Eating out invariably raises a number of tricky questions: sit-down or
drive-thru? Burgers or pizza? Thin or stuffed crust? And if you're
dining with your family, add the biggest question of all: Will the food
we eat today bring a fatter tomorrow for our kids? And fewer tomorrows
for the rest of us?

So the choice between McDonald’s and Burger King shouldn’t be based
solely on whether you're more terrified by the scary clown Ronald
McDonald or that creepy masked Burger King. Choosing one over the other
could be the difference of hundreds of calories in a meal, more than 10
unnecessary pounds over the course of a year, and countless health woes
over the course of a lifetime.

During more than a year of research, my coauthor and I discovered vast
dietary discrepancies between many of the places Americans love to eat
most. So to help you separate the commendable from the deplorable, we
put 43 major chain restaurants under the nutritional microscope — both
for your benefit, and that of your family.

How did we judge the restaurants? We started by calculating the average
number of calories per kid entrée, then rewarded restaurants for having
healthy adult options that would appeal to the young palette, and for
providing healthy vegetable sides and non-soda drink options. Finally,
we docked points for those restaurants still harboring nasty trans fats.

The result is a Restaurant Report Card that holds each eating
establishment fully accountable for the fare they’re serving up to all
of us — moms, dads, kids, teens, and twentysomethings — along with a
survival strategy for making it through any meal unscathed.

Did your favorite restaurant make the grade?

A
Chick-fil-A
Chick-fil-A excels in every category we tested for. With a slew of
low-calorie sandwiches, the country’s “healthiest” chicken nugget, a
variety of solid sides like fresh fruit and soup that can be
substituted into any meal, and nutritional brochures readily available
for perusing at each location, Chick-fil-A earns the award for
America’s Healthiest Chain Restaurant (for kids, for the adults who
drive them there, plus anybody else wise enough to make it their fast
food choice).

Your Survival Strategy: Even the smartest kid in the class can still
fail a test, so be on your toes at all times, even at Chik-fil-A. Skip
salads with ranch or Caesar dressings, any sandwich with bacon, and
avoid milkshakes at all costs.

A-
Subway
A menu based on lean protein and vegetables is always going to score
well in our book. With more than half a dozen sandwiches under 300
calories, plus a slew of soups and healthy sides to boot, Subway can
satisfy even the pickiest eater without breaking the caloric bank.

But, despite what Jared may want you to believe, Subway is not
nutritionally infallible: Those rosy calorie counts posted on the menu
boards include neither cheese nor mayo (add 160 calories per 6-inch
sub) and some of the toasted subs, like the Meatball Marinara, contain
hefty doses of calories, saturated fat, and sodium.

Your Survival Strategy: Cornell researchers have discovered a “health
halo” at Subway, which refers to the tendency to reward yourself or
your kid with chips, cookies, and large soft drinks because the entrée
is healthy. Avoid the halo, and all will be well.

B+
Boston Market
With more than a dozen healthy vegetable sides and lean meats like
turkey and roast sirloin on the menu, the low-cal, high-nutrient
possibilities at Boston Market are endless. But with nearly a dozen
calorie-packed sides and fatty meats like dark meat chicken and meat
loaf, it’s almost as easy to construct a lousy meal.

Your Survival Strategy: There are three simple steps to nutritional
salvation: 1) Start with turkey, sirloin, or rotisserie chicken. 2) Add
two noncreamy, nonstarchy vegetable sides. 3) Ignore all special items,
such as pot pie and nearly all of the sandwiches.

B
McDonald’s
Though not blessed with an abundance of healthy options, Mickey D’s
isn’t burdened with any major calorie bombs, either. Kid standards like
McNuggets and cheeseburgers are both in the acceptable 300-calorie
range.

Your Survival Strategy: Apple Dippers and 2% milk with a small entrée
makes for a pretty decent meal-on-the-go. McDonald’s quintessential
Happy Meal® makes this possible — just beware the usual French fries
and soda pitfalls. Adults should go for a Quarter Pounder without
cheese.

C+
Domino’s
Domino’s suffers the same pitfalls of any other pizza purveyor: too
much cheese, bread, and greasy toppings. If you don’t order carefully,
you might bag your child a pizza with more than 350 calories per slice.
To its credit, Domino’s does keep the trans fat off the pizza, and it
also offers the lowest-calorie thin crust option out there.

Your Survival Strategy: Stick with the Crunchy Thin Crust pizzas sans
sausage and pepperoni. If your must order meat, make sure it's ham. And
whenever possible, try to sneak on a vegetable or two per pie.

C
Burger King
BK has only four legitimate kids’ entrées on the menu, and none of them
— French Toast Sticks, hamburger, mac and cheese, chicken tenders — are
particularly healthy. And while the recent addition of Apple Fries
provides a much-needed healthy side alternative for kids, the menu is
still sullied with trans fats.

BK pledged to follow in the wake of nearly every other chain restaurant
and remove trans fats from the menu by the end of 2008, but so far,
we’ve seen little action.

Your Survival Strategy: Adults can sign on for the Whopper Junior and a
Garden Salad, and escape with only 365 calories. The best kids’ meal? A
4-piece Chicken Tenders®, applesauce or Apple Fries, and water or milk.
Beyond that, there is little hope of escaping unscathed.

D
Chipotle
We applaud Chipotle’s commitment to high-quality produce and fresh
meats, but even the most pristine ingredients can’t dampen the damage
wrought by the massive portion sizes served up here. The lack of
options for kids means young eaters are forced to tussle with one of
Chipotle’s massive burritos or taco platters, which can easily top
1,000 calories.

Your Survival Strategy: Stick to the crispy tacos or burrito bowls, or saw a burrito in half.

F
Applebee’s, IHOP, Olive Garden, Outback, Red Lobster, T.G.I. Friday’s
These titans of the restaurant industry are among the last national
chains to not provide nutritional information on their dishes. Even
after years of communication with their representatives, we still here
the same old excuses: it’s too pricey, it’s too time-consuming, it’s
impossible to do accurately because their food is so fresh. Our
response is simple: If every other chain restaurant in the country can
do it, then why can’t they?

Your Survival Strategy: Write letters, make phone calls, beg, scream,
and plead for these restaurants to provide nutritional information on
all of their products. Here are the phone numbers for each of the
restaurants that refuse to tell us the truth!

Applebees: email, 888-59APPLE; IHOP: email, 888-240-6055 (press 1 for
Guest Visit issues); Olive Garden: email, 800-331-2729; Outback: email,
757-493-7662; Red Lobster: email, 800-LOBSTER; T.G.I. Friday's: email,
800-FRIDAYS

@ Outback getting an F...

DJ UnReaL wrote:

@ Outback getting an F...

I know!!!!!!!!!!
Wtf! Who gives a fuck those places are still good

Im kinda mad applebees got an F

fuckin mcdonalds is better then them?
No...........

u have a Outbacks out by you?

DJ UnReaL wrote:u have a Outbacks out by you?

hell yeah... i think they have them everywhere

lolz...fo show, the adult Chicken fingers are the shit hahahaha

o and the Cheese Fries too......

DJ UnReaL wrote:lolz...fo show, the adult Chicken fingers are the shit hahahaha

o and the Cheese Fries too......

lol dog applebees is where its at though..... those ribs are the best
outbacks good too.... barely go there though

applebees is ok, they got some good shit....lol

ahahahah yea they do.... shit, kinda wanna go there now.

lawl.....shit i might hit up taco bell........ya dig? lol

DJ UnReaL wrote:lawl.....shit i might hit up taco bell........ya dig? lol

yeaaa taco bell

Outback is a beast! haha. love them... only once every 5 years shit haha.

Haha watch this about Black Angus

????????????????? ^^^^^